Tacoma Guitars is the actual factory that
manufactures the new 2005 Guild models that are getting rave reviews
worldwide. Do not buy one of those Corona built Guilds, they
were considered a failure even by the people who built them.
In fact Fender dumped them on the market by selling them all off to
a wholesaler from Tennessee who specializes in supplying pawn
shops with dreck guitars. The smartest move Fender ever made
was to purchase Tacoma and leave it alone to continue building some
of the finest guitars in the world.

After long deliberation & much thought I have decided to recommend the Tacoma
Guitars as the Absolute best guitaryou can buy at the
lower, mid and upper price ranges. With their new ridiculously inexpensive
Brazilian Rosewood & Macassar Ebony Models no other company can touch them in the
under $1,000.00 arena. In fact I have compared $800.00 Tacoma's to $2,000.00
Martins & Taylor's.

In a double blind test the Tacoma has won 20 to 1 over the Martin and about
15 to 1 over the Taylor's. Please don't think even for one second that we have
discovered the Taylor Guitar is better than the Martin. We did however discover
why Taylor is outselling Martin and why many untrained ears will pick a Taylor
over a Martin. (Here is my theory on that). The people at Taylor are
building a very nice guitar, however they are using extremely thin wood in the
construction. This thin wood is what allows their guitars to resonate and give
that shimmering crisp Taylor signature tone. It is my theory that if they used
slightly thicker wood their guitars would improve with age better than they do
now.

The challenge that Taylor undertook was to outsell Martin. To do so they have
had to come up with some pretty clever manufacturing concepts and innovations.
Personally, I am not a believer in what Taylor does. I prefer my guitars to
mellow with age. I prefer my guitars to have a little more bottom end and soul.
I am not a Martin person myself, (too traditional) but I would sooner own a Martin than
a Taylor. Actually I would really prefer a McPherson but those start above
where the Tacoma's Top Out. In actuality I own 2 Tacoma's.

In fact, a good customer of mine who owns a very
expensive model Taylor guitar recently told me that his top of the line model sounded
OK when he was playing on stage. At home or In the studio however it sounded like the high hat. I couldn't have put
it better if I tried. This person was actually given his guitar by Taylor
(He is a celebrity) asked me not to use his name in print because he didn't want
to seem ungrateful to them for giving him the guitar.

At the CMT awards in Las Vegas I was at the soundboard, There were several
different guys that were doing sound, and they were having a horrible time
balancing the Taylor guitars in the mix. One of them told me that he had to cut
Alanis Morrisette completely out of the mix once because her Taylor was so
incredibly shrill that it was destroying the mix. (The Official Guitar For
The Country Music Awards is now Larrivee)

Remember the vast majority of guitar buyers have untrained ears and they
don't really know what to look for. I'll bet that 85% of the people who buy
Taylor Guitars would fall into that category. Several years ago Taylor did some
Brazilian Rosewood models that I sold in the $4,500.00 price range. They were
the best Taylor's I have ever sold. However the Tacoma Amazon eats it for lunch. The only other
acoustic guitar I consistently like is the Larrivee.

If you call I am prepared to give names and phone numbers of people who
own Tacoma's and who also own Martin's, Taylor's, Santa Cruz, etc etc. I already
know what they are going to say. But you can hear first hand from people
who actually own these guitars.

If you are one of the people that likes the brightness that Taylor offers,
Tacoma wins easily with some of the most beautiful quilted maple model at a
tremendously lower cost than all of it's competitors. (Remember Tacoma has
their own tree forests, They grow their own Spruce, Cedar & Maple) The new
"Amazon" Brazilian Rosewood model totally decimates any Taylor, Martin,
Breedlove, Santa Cruz or even Larrivee that compete in the high end bracket.

The midrange bracket is a no man's land where you really have to be extra
careful. Each guitar stands alone in this area due to varying conditions of
construction and basic likes and dislikes. In short it is impossible for me to
proclaim any winner there due to the fact that they are all pretty close. If I
was going to make a suggestion however the Koa Kahuna will
definitely stand up to some of the other companies models for twice the price.

Ed Roman

All Tacoma Guitars are made in the USA.

All Tacoma guitars are made from 100% solid wood (no laminates)
All Tacoma Guitars come with a high quality hard shell case.

Tacoma Guitars is the actual factory that manufactures the new 2006 Guild models that are getting rave reviews worldwide.

Do not buy one of those Corona built Guild's they were considered a failure even
by the people who built them.

In fact Fender dumped them on the market by selling them all off to a wholesaler from Tennessee who specializes in supplying pawn shops with dreck guitars.